Lady Honora?From his limited experience with her, she seemed to be the most level-headed of her peers, aside from Cassandra herself.
“She kept insulting me,andyou.” Her footsteps fell hard on the gravel. “She said there’s a rumor going around that—oh, it’s just ridiculous. I have a title of my own, now. They’re calling meTheWager Wife.”
Seth’s blood ran cold.
Wager.
His fingers twitched as he tried to ask casually, “Why would they call you that?”
“Thetonhas it in mind that you and Colonel Bishop made a wager on my virginity during the target competition. Everyone thinks you compromised me because of that.” Her voice strained and Seth forgot how to breathe. “I told her that you would never have done that to me, that you love me. I called her jealous, and the next thing I knew I was on the floor.”
Every word was a stab to his heart. He forced air into his lungs, swallowed thickly and told himself tofocus.Say the right thing. Do the right thing. But he couldn’t do anything. Couldn’tsayanything.
At his silence, Cassandra took a shuddering inhale and fixed her gaze squarely on his. Her hand trembled on his arm.
Or was he the one trembling?
“Tell me that she’s wrong.”
The words caught in Seth’s throat and silence filled the space between them, growing like the plague with each step. Cassandra dropped his arm and stopped walking. That spark of love and trust he had built so carefully diminished in her eyes.
“Seth!Tell methat you did not wager my virtue on ashotwith Colonel Bishop!”
Heart sinking low, he faced her.
“I can’t.”
She took a step away from him. Then another. Her voice was a whisper above the wind. “So everything after that… the library… the field. When you kissed me… was that all because of a wager?”
“What?No! It wasn’t like that!”
“I’m such a fool!” She increased her pace with each word. “Colonel Bishop even said so! That you came tocollectme, that you couldbeton it, and you said nothing.”
“You weren’t in any state to have that conversation, you were fracturing.” He lengthened his stride to catch up with her.
A choked breath escaped her, and she sniffed.
“I knew I was going to make the shot, Cassandra, it wasn’t a gamble for me. I wasn’t going to do anything about it. He threatened you. I wanted him to leave you alone. Nothing between us has been because of that!Youasked me to kiss you,youasked me to make love to you.”
“You had never shown an interest before. You made that bet with him and then you kissed me.”
“Those actions donotconnect like that. You’re not listening to me, and you’re angry over nothing.”
“I’m angry because I wasslappedin public defending you and I waswrong,” she corrected tersely. “If you weren’t going to make good on the wager then why did you make it?”
“Toprotectyou. That’s all I ever seem to do these days!” He caught up with her. “You want to know what I was thinking at the end of that target competition? How much I wanted to marry you. That Ihadto win because I couldn’t bear the thought of you with some random man off Lady Dorchester’s list.”
“You were on Aunt Valentine’s list, Seth!”
Seth paused.
Cassandra froze.
He took a deep breath.
“Was I on the list the whole time?”
“I thought you knew that.” She averted her gaze, hiding her face behind her bonnet. “Matthew had seen the list. I assumed he told you.”